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Leek

//liːk// name, noun

Definitions

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A town and civil parish with a town council in Staffordshire Moorlands district, Staffordshire, England (OS grid ref SJ9856).
  2. 2
    A village and former municipality in Groningen province, Netherlands.
  3. 3
    A surname.
Noun
  1. 1
    A vegetable of variety Allium ampeloprasum, having edible leaves and an onion-like bulb but with a milder flavour than the onion.
  2. 2
    related to onions; white cylindrical bulb and flat dark-green leaves wordnet
  3. 3
    Any of several species of Allium, broadly resembling the domesticated plant in appearance in the wild.
  4. 4
    plant having a large slender white bulb and flat overlapping dark green leaves; used in cooking; believed derived from the wild Allium ampeloprasum wordnet

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English leke, leek, lek, from Old English lēac (“a garden herb, leek, onion, garlic”), from Proto-West Germanic *lauk, from Proto-Germanic *lauką *laukaz (“leek, onion”), from Proto-Indo-European *lewg- (“to bend”). Cognate with Dutch look (“garlic, leek”), German Low German Look (“leek”), German Lauch (“leek, allium”), Danish løg (“onion”), Swedish lök (“onion”), Icelandic laukur (“onion, leek, garlic”). See garlic.

Etymology 2

Perhaps of pre-Anglo-Saxon (non-Old English) origin and instead from Celtic; compare Welsh llech and Irish leac (“stone”), both from Proto-Celtic *ɸlikkā. Recorded as Lec in 1086 (DB).

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